Rivers of Living Water — Bill McLeod

Jesus’ Promise of Living Water

If you'll turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 8, back upon chapter 7, verse 31. "'And many of the people believed on him and said, When Christ comes, will he do more miracles than these which this man has done?

The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.

You shall seek me, and shall not find me, and where I am, there you cannot come. Then the Jews said among themselves, Where will he go, that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?

What manner of saying is this, that he said, You shall seek me, and shall not find me, and where I am, there you cannot come? In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.

He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Just before I came up to the pulpit, I was sitting there thinking to myself back to the days when I worked for the Shantyman's Christian Association, preaching in logging camps and so on. And I was thinking of some of those meetings, a little shack.

You could touch the roof of your hand standing like that. Over in this corner was an airtight heater, which most of you don't know what it is. And around that was a wire framework with underwear and socks and all kinds of shirt stuff hanging, drying.

And across the end of this little shack was a shelf on which the men slept. I mean, they slept like cordwood sticks across the shelf, you know. So I stood here. The stove was there. The ceiling was here.

The smell was awful, and there were maybe ten men sitting on the shelf, and I preached. Some had cigars, some had pipes. The odd guy had a flask of whiskey on his hip and took a snort every now and then.

And some had hats on. And if you prayed, you didn't dare pray long or you'd lose them all. You know, sometimes when you shut your eyes to pray, they had no idea what was happening. And we had a little chorus.

We used to teach them, All the way to Calvary he went for me. And they often would sing it, they thought the song sheet had spelled the word wrong. All the way to Calvary he went for me. You know, precious days.

Some days walking ten miles, fifteen miles, twenty-five miles with a pack on my back. Great days. But quite different from tonight. He that believes on me, Jesus said. Please notice this is not written for Christian workers only, but for every believer in Christ.

It simply says, He that believes on me. Does that include you? If it does, then the rest is for you as well. Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.

For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because the Jesus was not yet glorified. There's a tragic discrepancy about which we don't seem to even bother our heads. We don't think about it. When we think about it, we dismiss it as quickly as we possibly can.

We don't like to think about it. I'm speaking of the discrepancy between what God has promised and what the average Christian is actually experiencing. See, he said, rivers of living water. Frequently we hear people say, rivers, there's not even a trickle in my life.

And they walk away, not concerned enough to ask the simple question, why? Why? This is one of the 7 ,487 promises in the Bible. And the scripture says about the promises, he is faithful, that promise.

Did he mean this? If he did, why do I not experience this? And we want to consider that tonight. In the book of Acts, you were either filled with the Spirit or filled with Satan. Filled with the Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit, or filled with Satan and the fruits of Satan.

Being Filled With the Holy Spirit

Acts 2 says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 4, 31, which was sort of an extension of Pentecost. We read, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And then Acts 13, 52 says, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Then you jump over to Romans 14, 17, 18. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink. The Old Testament kingdom was. The New Testament Hebrew says that the Old Testament kingdom stood only in meat and drink and different washings and carnal ordinances imposed on the people until the time of reformation.

And the next statement is that Christ has come. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And may I add in that order, righteousness, peace, and joy.

Do you want a good study? Look up all the places in the Bible where righteousness and peace occur together. You'll be amazed. Old Testament and New. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other in Psalm 85.

And if you know, the psalm is very short. And in the psalm, we have this thought, will thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Poetic language veiling a great, great truth.

When I'm right with God, when I'm right with my fellow man, when I'm right with my own conscience, I have peace. The work of righteousness is peace. And the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever.

And if we don't have it, it's because we're not right. Their heart was not right, it says in Psalm 78, about the Israelites at a certain time in their history. Their heart wasn't right. In the book of Acts, Simon the sorcerer, he believed he was baptized.

But Peter said to him, your heart is not right in the sight of God. I perceive, he said, that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Although a professing Christian, Acts chapter 5, Peter to Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?

How is it that you've agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? And Ananias died and his wife died, but they were filled with the fruits of Satan, the father of lies. Elemas the sorcerer, in Acts 13, it says, and Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, said, O full of all suckling and all mischief, you child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

Elemas the sorcerer, a child of Satan, filled with sucklety, filled with mischief, the word as used in the Bible talks about things that hurt, enemy of righteousness. And I think here of Romans chapter 1, where in one verse, is it 29?

It says, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, adultery, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, strife, full of Satan and his fruit, one of the two. There's not much neutrality here. We are or we aren't.

Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Spirit

Why am I not filled? Romans 15, 13 says, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. A preacher once said to me kindly, he said, Bill, you're talking all the time, you revival people about those that are filled with the Spirit.

He said, do you realize there's not a single place in the Bible where anybody ever said, I am filled with the Spirit? I said, have you never read the book of Micah? Micah said, truly, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgment and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

He hadn't read that. I said, moreover, do you know of a single solitary place in the Bible where anybody ever said, I am saved? There's no such place. I said, pursuing then your line of argument, nobody should ever say they're saved.

I know the Spirit came to glorify Christ. But when you read in the gospel of John, it says he shall not speak of himself. It does not mean he will not speak about himself. That's not the meaning at all.

That's the meaning you would take if you took it out of the context. He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. So he would not speak of, that is from, that is out of himself.

Christ said the same thing. I have not spoken of myself. Did he mean he never talked about himself? He talked about himself constantly. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the door.

But he never spoke from himself. He said in the context, the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. The Spirit spoke about himself 350 times in the Bible.

But he came to glorify Christ, and a spiritual person will certainly endeavor to do what the Holy Spirit is doing, and that is glorify Christ. That's why Paul wrote and said, let no man glory in men. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.

Amen. What's the problem? Ephesians 5 .18 says be filled, literally be getting filled with the Spirit. It means, of course, over and over again. Now, people say, I've prayed 100 times and maybe 150 times to be filled with the Spirit, and nothing's changed.

Why is that? He that believes on me, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Job 20 has an answer. He begins by talking about the hypocrite. Later on in the chapter, he talks about this hypocrite having a sweet morsel, that is, a candy in his mouth.

Now, this candy, which he has likely under his tongue, nobody else knows he's got it there. He's enjoying it, and it represents secret sin. There are things we think, there are things we do, there are things we say, perhaps, that nobody knows about but God.

But Psalm 90 says, thou hast set our iniquities before thee are secret sins in the light of your countenance. Secret sin, dear people, there is no such thing. We are self-deceived when we think we've managed to get away with something.

Listen, some men's sins are open beforehand, going before the judgment, and some men may follow after. Be sure your sins will find you out. And perhaps, in a fruitless life, an empty, powerless life, do you know what it goes on to say in Job chapter 20?

He, this hypocrite, this person with secret sin, he will not see the floods, the brooks, the margins of the screaming brooks, the rivers. He'll never see them. That's what it says. So maybe that's the problem.

Sin, Bondage, and the Dry Land

Or perhaps, if we turn over to Job chapter 36, talking about the righteous, it says, he never takes his eyes, he never withdraws his eyes from the righteous. God watches over his flock day and night. And it says, with kings are they in the throne.

Yes, he establishes them forever, and they are exalted. And if, if they be bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction, he's talking about Christians. Hearken back to Simon the sorcerer. I perceive that you're in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

He got saved, but apparently he never got free for some of his occult connections. Remember, he was a sorcerer, and many, many people in Samaria where he lived had unclean spirits as a result. And I think he was bitter because he used to be the center of attraction, and now Philip was.

And he found that very hard to deal with. If they be bound in fetters, the righteous, the people concerning whom God never takes his eyes off of them, they are kings before God. But such people, you and me, we may be bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction.

What then? It says, then he shows them their worth. He shows them what's wrong. He says, this is the problem. He's telling me there that he knows how to communicate to us. Often we hear people saying, I've asked God to show me.

God never shows me. I just don't happen to believe that. The truth is likely here. God has been showing them for long, perhaps years. They haven't done a thing about it. They keep on asking God to show them.

I guess maybe hoping that somehow he'll show them something different. So it says, then he shows them their worth and their transgressions that they have exceeded, and he opens their ear to discipline, and he commands that they return from iniquity.

Dear people, this is how God deals with us, his children. And if the rivers are not flowing, the answer is found here. In Psalm 68, it says, the rebellious dwell in a dry land. And if you're guilty of rebelling against the will of God in your life, you may drill a hole a thousand feet deep and not get a drop of water.

But if you deal with your rebellions and become a humble servant to God, which all of us are supposed to be, you'll have more water than you can handle. The rebellious dwell in a dry land. Another thought.

Rivers Flowing Outward in Revival

In Proverbs 5, it says, let your fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of water in the street. That's where the people are. Oh, a thought just came to me. People wondering, you know, does it happen today?

I mean, is revival happening? Real revival happening today? I have a friend, Henry Blackaby. Some of you know him. He was a pastor in Saskatoon, Southern Baptist, at the time of the revival. A very close friend of mine, now working with a Southern Baptist denomination in the area of revival.

They've hired him full time to promote revival. I don't like to use that word. He probably wouldn't use that. But to try and get the churches, 45 ,000 of them, in that particular group, concerned about revival.

And he goes around the country getting people into prayer for revival. And he was in Southern California and had a prayer concert. And a black pastor came. He had a church with 500 members. And he really got this prayer thing straight.

And went back to his church and began preaching prayer for revival. I'm not sure how long it took, three months, four months. And a revival broke. God answered their heart cry. And the entire church was swept by the power of God.

And you know what happened? They spilled out in the streets and started soul winning. And they won 3 ,000 people to Christ in two weeks. It sounds like Pentecost, doesn't it? God is doing it. To encourage us here and there.

But to all of us, the challenge is the same. From our text, He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. There's a truth in that text that you may not see.

It's this. Unless when you pray to be filled with the Spirit, you're thinking in terms of being a blessing to a lost world. Let your fountains be dispersed abroad. And rivers of waters in the streets.

If you're not concerned about soul winning, don't expect to be filled with the Spirit of God. You know the difference between the Sea of Galilee, which is alive even today, they say, with fish and the Dead Sea, which has always been dead.

Nothing lives in that sea. And it's drying up because the Jordan River, they're taking so much water out the Jordan River for irrigation purposes, there's not nearly the amount of water flowing to the Dead Sea.

And the Dead Sea is slowly drying up. There's places where the bottom has come up to the water. It's absolutely dead. The Sea of Galilee, dear people, it's alive because the river flows in and it flows out.

The Dead Sea is dead because the river flows in and nothing flows out. And the question is, what are you thinking of for your life? Galilee or the Dead Sea? Why should God fill you with the Spirit if you have no intention of sharing the gospel with other people?

Speaking the truth in love was not written for preachers. It was written for all of us. I'll never forget, it was years back, a crusade in Saginaw, Michigan, the Baptist Church and the Alliance Church got involved.

And a lady from the Alliance Church really met God. Her pastor told us later, he said, you know, she's one of the shyest people I ever knew. Eighteen months after the crusade, he wrote to tell us this.

He said, that woman has led a hundred people to Christ since the crusade. Fifty of them young people and children and fifty of them were adults. He said, she's an absolute dynamo. Now, what happened, dear people?

Did she read a book on how to do it? No. There's lots of books of that kind, but they don't build fires in people's hearts. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. Proverbs 5. Is that the problem? The Song of Solomon 4, verse 12.

A garden barred is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. The bridegroom is speaking about his bride and he's lamenting because his bride is like a spring, a garden that's barred, a spring that's shut up and a fountain that's sealed.

There's no water flowing and it grieves him because the church is God's channel for blessing the world. There are strange, strange things happening in evangelical circles today. You know, they have movements now where they have dances for the young people in evangelical churches.

There's a movement in British Columbia. It's in other places as well. I was challenged about it very recently in the city of Winnipeg where people, evangelical, that is born-again people, are going back into the Orthodox Catholic Church, not the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Catholic Church.

And this man who challenged me, he said, they have discovered by going back into church history that that's the only church that has the truth. And I said this to him, I said, I've been in Romania where 75 of the people are Orthodox Catholics.

I said, you know what the Orthodox Catholic Church is doing in Romania today? They are trying to get the government to make them the state church so they can stamp out the evangelical witness. He was shocked out of his mind.

He had no idea. Do you know why some of these things are happening to our people? It's because we've lost the glory of God. Like in the Old Testament, do you know what it says? Israel has forgotten his maker and built temples.

Do you know what I saw down near Charlotte, North Carolina? A $40 million evangelical church. I rubbed my eyes when I saw it. I couldn't believe it. It looked like a Walt Disney thing let down from heaven.

A huge, huge affair. They got some expert in, there's lots of them today, you know, and they told these guys they have 3 ,000 members in their church. They said, financially, if you have 17 ,000 members, you can handle the debt.

So they bought the program and they built the church. And they're about to lose it. They'll likely lose it within one month. It was a good, sound church. Well respected, I say, highly respected in the community.

But they listened to the wrong people instead of listening to God. I can't for a minute imagine that God wanted them to spend $40 million of evangelical money to build a building. I remember sharing the conference with a pastor.

Their church only cost $27 million. The organ cost $1 million. You can completely support a church planter, a missionary, a pastor, an evangelist in a third world country for about $35 a month. Let's say $400 a year.

If they sold the organ, think of all they could do for God. These are happening. We've lost the glory of God. We've lost touch with God. And now people are reaching out in all directions, looking for something to make up the void, to fill the void.

And nothing will fill it, dear people, but the power of God. When we repent on our faces before God for these things. Daniel never said, Israel is very wicked. Israel has sinned grievously. He said, we have sinned.

We have sinned. And we're part of the evangelical scene. We are sinning anyway. He that believes on Me, as the Scripture said, out of His innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. The promise is still the same.

It's never been abrogated, never been changed. And it's meant for you. Whoever you are, if you're born again, this promise is for you. Now, in your mind, you'll try and push that aside and say, no, it's not for me.

I'm a very shy, self-conscious person. It's not meant for me. When people tell me they're self-conscious, I say, what kind of conscious is that? Self-conscious. What kind of conscious? Self-conscious.

What kind of conscious? Oh, yeah, I never thought of that. It's a self-problem. It's a self-problem. I was like that. I was so shy at one time, people, I couldn't look in the mirror without blushing.

And to talk to people, I'd get a few words up, zee, would close off. I couldn't say a thing. Can you believe it? It's true. And that's the argument I use with God. Not me. You know I can't talk. And the Lord said, what about Moses?

Moses. Mighty in word and deed, of slow speech. Yeah. Yeah, Moses. Oh, yeah, that's right, Lord. But God, I don't know anything. And God said, what about Jeremiah? Jeremiah said, Lord, I'm a child. And God said, don't you say I'm a child.

There isn't much left. When you're talking with God, dear people, he's got all the answers before you even think of them. And you have to come his way. Are you a spring shut up? A sealed fountain? The power of God is there because the Holy Spirit lives in your heart.

There isn't a Christian in this building, if you're truly born again, that doesn't have the Holy Spirit. He lives in your heart. But you've got him bottled up. You've got him stuck in the room. And you've locked the door on him.

And you don't want to let him out, because he might get you into some trouble. People, this is the problem. In Piney, Manitoba, Piney isn't far from Pine River, Minnesota. Piney is a very small place, just a whistle stop.

The only problem is the trains don't go there anymore. It has a hotel and a beer parlor. Every place has that. Well, there was a half a store there. I mean, if six people came, they'd have to close down for a week to get restocked, you know.

Very small place, no restaurant. When I was with the Shannon Mission years ago, I heard that these people got together and built a church seating 100 people. And a Lutheran pastor come down after they built the church, and they had a dedication service, and that was in the spring.

And they hadn't had a service since then. So I went down in the fall, and they welcomed me with open arms. And the first meet I had in that place, there was 100 people there. The place was packed. There were two Christians in the crowd, that's all.

And five young men accepted Christ that night. One of them is married more to my daughters. Isn't that interesting? I mention Piney because they have the best water in the world. You know, they drill for water.

They go down about 70 feet, and they hit a hard pan. When the drill goes through the hard pan, they get the drill out of the hole as fast as they can because the pressure of the water is so great. It just flies out of the hole.

One guy in Piney, he complained because he had such poor pressure. He had a pipe about this high, and the water only came that high out of his pipe. He really complained. The CNR Railway, they built, they drilled a big hole about three or four inches.

On the south side of the town. And they had a pipe about eight or ten feet, and the water just, day and night, the year round. In the wintertime, they built a beautiful ice castle. About 30 feet across.

Never quit. And then they ran into a problem. Some people came in. They were going to have a dairy or creamery or something on the north side of the town. And they drilled a three or four inch hole for water.

And they went down 30 feet and hit the hard pan. And the water came boiling up. They got the drill out of the hole, and they couldn't control the crazy thing. The pressure was so great, it began to build the hole bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

Until finally, it began to flood the fields and fill the ditches and flood the roads. And they had a problem on their hands. So they sent an SOS to Winnipeg, 70 miles away, and said, we're going to have to do something.

So somebody said, well, let's get some ready-mixed concrete trucks down here. So they got a fleet of ready-mixed concrete trucks from Winnipeg, and they had to build a wooden bridge with big heavy timbers into this hole so the trucks could back in and dump their load, you know.

It was on TV. It's quite a thing. Finally got on the map for the first and only time in their existence. I don't know how many trucks there were. But I do know this. People, eventually, they stopped it.

There wasn't a trickle. And there isn't today. But keep this in mind. The pressure is still there down below, right? Still there. Now we're going to do a scenario. Over here, in your mind's eye, see this field.

The Fountain Blocked by Sin

It's about 50 acres. And towards this side of the field, there's a fountain, say, about this wide, going up about this high, just pouring out of the ground. Can you see that in your mind's eye? That represents your life, the mind.

And it's flowing. Praise God. Look at it. But look over here. There's a cement truck coming. Look at this thing coming. Look at it. Can you hear the air brakes? Listen carefully. I can hear them. Almost.

Here it comes. Oh, there's a name on the side. What does it say? It says Loss. Loss. Loss. That's true. He turns around. He backs in across this bridge. He raises the thing. All the cement goes into the hole.

He drives away. You'd never know anything had happened. There's another truck coming, about the same size. Here he comes. Watch him. He's coming. He comes. He comes. He slows down. The air brakes. He turns around.

He backs. What's the name on the truck? Oh, it says Covetousness. And he backs into the hole. And he dumps his load. And he drives away. As you look at that fountain, you say to yourself, yeah, it's not quite as high as it was before.

Not quite as high. There's another truck coming. You know, it's getting dusty. You can hardly make... It goes by me. It says Envy. Envy. Oh, Envy. Yeah, Envy. It turns around. Backs into the hole. Dumps his load.

And he drives away. The water. Oh, yeah. Now you can see it's going down. I hear another truck coming. I watch him. I get a little closer because it's really dusty. As he goes sailing past me, I see written across the side of the truck.

It says Anger. Oh, Anger. That's strange. He turns around. He backs into the hole. He dumps his load. And he goes. Ah, you can really see it now. That thing is really going down, man. They're doing it.

There's another truck coming. Watch it. It gets closer and closer. Closer. Look carefully. What is this? It says Laziness on the side. Oh, Laziness. Yeah. It goes into the hole. Dumps the load. Drives away.

Boy, the old water. It's down about three inches from the ground now. It's not much there, you know. But it's still flowing. I see another truck coming. He's really moving. I hope he gets stopped. Yeah, he gets stopped.

He backs up. I take a look at the side. And it says Lust. Oh, Lust. Didn't we see that before? Two trucks of Lust. So it says. Well, he backs in. He dumps his load. And they all come. I keep counting.

One after the other. Bitterness. Unforgiving spirit. Idolatry. All these things. Fifteen trucks go by. And, you know, when the 13th truck dumps his load, I look at that thing in the field. And there's a little spurt here and there's a little spurt there and a little spurt here.

But there isn't much. After truck number 14 dumps his load. There's just one little feeble spurt on one side. And when the 15th truck dumps his load, there's nothing. They sealed it off. And heaven says.

A garden barred. As my sister, my spouse, has sprang and shut up. A fountain sealed. The pride of Christ. A sealed fountain breaking his heart. But there's hope. Because I read in Isaiah 64, a prayer and an answer.

The prophet said, oh God, that you come down. That you render heavens and come down. That the mountains might flow down at your presence. Listen. If mountains flow down at the presence of God. Do you suppose that little bit of concrete can stand up to God?

Of course not. He can melt that with a thought. And all that concrete. Tons and tons and tons of it. Will be gone in an instant. If I meet my God. On the basis of repentance. And faith. He that covers his sins shall not prosper.

Whoso confesses and forsakes them. Shall have mercy. People listen. Would you ask yourself the question? Would you answer this question? What's that fountain of fear like in your life? Is there a trickle?

Is there anything? Then if there's not. You ought to be the most concerned person in the world. Isaiah prayed, I say. That God might render heavens and come down. So the mountains of pride and lust. And covetousness and jealousy and envy and strife.

And all these wicked things. Might flow down and disappear. And so a little, a verse or two later he says. That God did this. God came down. And the mountains flowed down. At the presence of God. But some people think.

The water hasn't flowed for 20 years. It can never flow. Do you believe that? That's the devil's lie. He that believes on me. Have you believed on Christ? You have? Then this promise is for you. The Lord Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit living within you. He wants all the channels open. So he can flow. Love is flowing like a river. Flowing out to you and me. Flowing out into the desert. Setting all the captives free. And the chorus says.

Let it flow through me. Let it flow through me. Let the mighty love of God. Flow out. Through me. Is that your heart burden? Are you tired? Are you concerned? That your life is empty? I had a friend in Canada.

He preached. He wasn't a preacher. But he did a lot of preaching. A lot of teaching. A gorgeous singer. But he told me in 25 years. I don't know. Of one single person. My singing and teaching and preaching.

Has ever been a blessing to him. And then he got concerned. And he sought God. We did it together. And God touched his life. We still correspond. He told me in the first 18 months. After God filled his life.